I just returned from a lobster-hunting dive in California. The trip, set up by seaudivin in Cottonwood, AZ, used the Sand Dollar dive boat in Long Beach, CA.

I like to write about the operation and technicalities of my dives so that others may benefit from my experiences (I love finding things like this when I’m looking into a dive trip). If you’re just here for the pictures, scroll down! Note that only about half of the pictures are featured; the remainder are in the gallery at the bottom. Remember, you can click on any image to get a larger version of it.

I found out about this trip the way I find out about all of the best things – by word of mouth. In this case, a friend in Flagstaff told me about this trip and I decided to check it out. Seaudivin arranged for very reasonable transportation from Flagstaff to long beach – a van towing a trailer for all of our gear. It was a great bunch of people, and definitely not the cattle boat experience. We left on a Wednesday AM and didn’t return until Saturday night. So we got to know each other pretty well.

The Sand Dollar is a live-aboard charter, not a daily pick-up operation. As crew, there were two mates, a cook, and Captain George, for a total of four. All were divers. The boat made its own nitrox and compressed air, filling our cylinders directly from hoses on the aft deck – so once we set up our kits, we left them that way for the duration – very nice. The boat provided weights and steel cylinders with a max pressure of 2400 PSI. I was told that the increased volume of the cylinders made them roughly equivalent to AL 80s filled to 3000 PSI.

They fed us like pate geese. The food was good-quality, abundant, American fare, with a bowl of fruit always available as well as plenty of candy and in-between-meal snacks. Not knowing what I would find, I brought my own snacks, but this was not necessary.

The Sand Dollar is a no-nonsense dive boat. There are no masseuses or private staterooms. The crew is very helpful but they do not have a lot of resources; it’s best to bring a box of spare parts and critical dive gear backups. The accommodations are “racks” fore and aft, which have decent mattresses (single and double, for couples) and about 14 inches of headroom. I thought the forward ones were the nicest ones. A curtain can be drawn across the opening of your rack. Ventilation was at a minimum. There are no storage lockers; your gear either sleeps with you in your rack or spends its time out on deck. Privacy is minimal, as you’d expect. But it was completely adequate and as we were a friendly group, we had no problems. The galley is spacious and best of all, there are two bathrooms with showers, and since the boat makes its own fresh water, you don’t have to take military showers.

The best thing about the Sand Dollar is the informal style of diving. Don’t like this location? Ask Capt. George, he’ll move the boat somewhere else. The aft gate was left open for hours at a time, and there was no schedule. If you felt like diving, you went, otherwise, you did whatever you wished. There’s a flat screen with a DVD player in the galley, and always a couple of books and magazines floating around. The spacious but unadorned fo’csle deck gives you a space to sunbathe without getting in the way of divers (there is also a deck above the main deck where you can sit down and be out of the way).

Last but not least, it was inexpensive. For three days on the boat, meals and air fills, I paid $500. Since I use nitrox, I paid a little extra, but it was reasonable. George clearly knows what he is doing, knows the dive spots like the back of his hand, and operates safely.

As to the diving itself – these tended to be advanced-level dives: deep, cold, and at night. However, there were plenty of gentler places for the less experienced; we had some new (and young) divers aboard, and they had a good time. My dives averaged about 80-110 feet and the water temperature was 55-65 degrees. Some people used 7mm wetsuits, but that is no fun at all; I used a dry suit and thick fleece. I was comfortable in 2mm wet gloves and a 7mm wet hood. I used air or 28-32% EAN. Visibility was about 30 feet. There were sea lions swimming around, although they didn’t interact with us, and tons of life in the water column and on the bottom. The kelp is amazing; swimming in kelp forests is magical. Crawling through it on a long surface swim is not; try to plan your return to the boat under the surface. Even if you surface far from the boat, it’s easier to swim at a depth of 5-10 feet than to fight through the kelp. Be prepared to get a little entangled now and then, but it’s not a big deal.

The boat approaches Santa Catalina island. We hung around this one island for the entire trip, sampling different locations.

A rock pinnacle provides a good roost for cormorants above and a reef for sea life below.

The anchor chain stretches through the kelp and into the depths. Sometimes there was only 17 feet of water under the boat, sometimes, more than 100. The presence of surface kelp is an indicator of shallower areas. Although the kelp can anchor deep and grow very long, it never seemed to reach the surface unless it was in 40 feet or less.

Dropping into the kelp, we are surrounded by fish…

…lots of fish…

…rivers of animals!

The sun silhouettes the bull kelp, creating an entrancing grove. I could imagine lying on my back and simply watching it sway while the beams of light penetrated the smoky water, caressing the many fish with their beams. On the kelp, small invertebrates make their humble living.

The astonishing opalescent nudibranch (a type of sea slug), seen only at night. This animal eats hydroids (relatives of jellyfish that are found on surfaces under water) and harvests their stinging cells for its own protection, storing them on its feathery tentacles (known as cerata).

An anemone.

Starfish.

This is not the eye of Sauron. It’s a retracted anemone. If you don’t know anemones, you might not realize that when disturbed, exposed to air, or after eating, they can collapse into themselves like this.

My dive buddy Jeff.

A swell shark. These placid and fairly harmless sharks can inflate like puffer fish, and don’t bother you if you don’t bother them. This guy is only about 18 inches long.

The Garibaldi fish, the protected state fish and iconic of California waters.

A small pacific octopus. When I found it, it was attacking a lobster, but I disturbed it and it instantly changed color from a grayish-pink to a more camoflauged green-brown, turned into a lump and sank to the bottom in an effort to be invisible. The lobster showed the spirit typical of its species and rather than running away, stood its ground aggressively, as if to say “yeah, who’s yer daddy! Want some more of this?”

The intricately complex mantle of an abalone.

As a stiff current carries us away from the boat, Jeff and I prepare to dive.

A cabezon waits patiently on the bottom. I found this guy inside of a rock-fall “cave.”

A spiny – and delicious – pacific spiny lobster. Unlike the Atlantic variety, these guys have no primary claws, although they have so many pointed spikes that they can still injure you. They have an attitude and know how to move fast when the need to get away. During the day they hide deep in rock crevices where they are impossible to reach. At night, they come out and traverse the sandy bottom looking for food; this is when they are vulnerable, so a lobster hunter probably has to do some deep night diving to get them. It was also the end of lobster season, so the easier ones had all been picked off.